Sunday, December 7, 2008

GHANA ELECTIONS NEWS

Accra

In the Klottey Korle and Dade Kotopon constituencies in Accra, voting is going on smoothly with the exception of delays in the delivery of voting materials to the Presby 2 Junior High School polling station at Osu in the Klottey Korle Constituency.

As at 0850 hours, voting had still not begun at the Presby 2 Junior High School polling station, although long queues had been formed as early as 0400 hours.

Polling officials were still setting up and arranging materials for voting to begin as voting materials had just been delivered.

Mr Ernest Ofori, Presiding Officer of the Presby 2 Junior High School polling station, told the Ghana News Agency that 844 registered voters were expected to cast their ballots.

Other voters at the Osu Police Barracks and the Temporary Booth G-Maa polling stations also in the Klottey Korle constituency began casting their ballots on time.

Mr Samuel Davies, Presiding Officer at the Temporary Booth G-Maa polling station, told the GNA that as at 0800 hours 63 people had cast their ballots out of 947 registered voters.

Voting at the Olympia Cinema, Lante-Dzan We, Ataa-Gbee, Konney Truru and CDR Office polling stations also started on time with long queues already formed as early as 0200 hours.

Party agents from the New Patriotic Party, National Democratic Congress and the Convention People's Party were present at all the polling stations visited by the GNA in the two constituencies.

Conspicuously missing were agents of the smaller parties at most of these polling stations.

The Democratic Freedom Party, however, had an agent at the Olympia Cinema polling station.

Akim Oda

As part Elections 2008, registered voters in the Akim Oda Municipality of the Eastern Region, on Sunday are casting their votes at the various polling stations peacefully.

The two constituencies in the municipality are Akim Oda with 109 polling stations and Akim Swedru with 74 polling stations.

At Akim Oda constituency, the Ghana News Agency (GNA) visited some of the centres including the Oda Old Town Anglican School, Oda Nkwanta, Saint Anthony Primary School, Oda Presbyterian School and Akim Asene, in all these centres the electorate were in an orderly queue and voting progressed steadily as at 0925 hours.

While at the municipal assembly centre in the same constituency, some aged men and women who spoke to the GNA, complained about the scourging sun, some of them also said they were tired of standing and therefore, had to relax elsewhere to wait for their turn.

At the Akim Swedru constituency, the GNA visited the Awisa Apaaso centre where the presiding officer, Appiah Dankwa, said there were 450 credible voters and seven transferred voters, that 139 had cast their votes as at 0950 hours. The GNA also noted that there were no security personnel at the centre.

At Akim Achiase in the same constituency, there were 928 voters and 146 had voted at the time.

In all the centres visited there was no chaos recorded, the electorate displayed maturity during the electoral process.

Ashaiman

At Ashaiman, Voting at the Divine Healers polling stations A and B delayed because ballot boxes for the presidential and parliamentary had no covers.

The situation created confusion when the GNA visited the station at 0900 hours with voters shouting "no cover no vote."

Mr Alfred Agbesi, the MP for Ashaiman who rushed to the station, supported the voters not to vote if the matter was not rectified.

Elsewhere at five polling stations at the Ashaiman Primary School as at 0800 hours voting was yet to start creating confusion.

Some voters who claimed to have joined the queues at 0300 hours blamed the electoral officials and the security personnel for the delay.

Mr Mohammed Nanlayo, presiding officer of polling station two, said all the five centres were yet to receive indelible ink and screens for voting to start.

In Wa, voting started smoothly in the Wa municipality with an encouraging turnout in the early hours of the day.

At Kabanye Junior High School polling station, 89 people out of the 620 registered voters had voted as at 0715 hours including some physically challenged persons.

Eighty-three (83) people out of 880 registered voters at the Wa District Labour Office polling station had exercised their franchise as at 0826 hours while at Wa Centre Prison polling station 55 out of 423 registered voters had also cast their votes as at 0831 hours.

At the Adonis Cinema Palace polling station out of the 693 registered voters, 138 people had cast their votes as at 0847 hours. The Museums and Monument Board Polling Station "B" recorded 153 votes out of the 533 registered as at 0857 hours.

One hundred and six (106) out the 511 registered voters had voted at the Museums and Monument Board polling station "A" as at 9.00 am.

The Environmental Health Office polling station "A" recorded 217 votes out of 820 registered voters as at 0907 hours while 110 people out of 684 registered voters at the Environmental Health Office Polling Station "B" exercised their franchise as at 0918 hours.

In all the polling stations that the GNA visited, political party agents were represented.

Kwashieman

At the Kwashieman Christ Mission A and B polling centres in the Ablekuma North constituency, voting materials arrived five minutes late.

However, voters who were seated on plastic chairs waited patiently until the electoral officers and police personnel arrived with the materials.

Mr. Amoako Attah, presiding officer for the Christ Mission B centre immediately distributed the voting materials among the personnel as soon as the materials arrived but some of the voters angrily shouted, "You are late, we want to vote early".

At the Kwashieman Anglican J.S.S., Mr. Elliot Class-Peters, the presiding officer told the GNA that voting started at 0750 hours. According to him, their voting materials arrived at 0730 hours.

He said the complaints he had received were voters who could not identifying where to cast their votes because they did not check during the voter's exhibition exercise.

At the Blue Lagoon Hotel centre at Sakaman, Mr. Patrick Acheampong told the GNA that voting started at 0710 hours.

He said the only problem at the station was a female voter who had a male photograph against her name in the register.

She was allowed to vote because her voter's identification card carried the correct information. Forty people had so far voted at the time of the visit.

At the Bethel Baptist Church Centre, Mr. Isaac Oppong, the Presiding Officer pointed out that one of his polling assistants was absent.

According to him, only the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democratic Congress (NDC) had their party representatives at the centre.

"The independent candidate, the Convention People's Party (CPP) and the People's National Convention (PNC)'s representatives were absent". Although there was a queue, the Electoral Officers had arranged chairs for the voters to sit and wait for their turn.

Two European Union (EU) observers were present with four policemen at the centre.

Tamale

In Tamale, voting began peacefully with voters queuing as early as 0530 hours and started at 0730 hours.

Mr. Husseini Bawa, the Presiding Officer, and the polling assistants had to convey election materials from the Regional Electoral Office on bicycle since there was no vehicle to bring the materials to the polling station.

He said the polling centre had 677 voters with seven transferred votes while there were no proxy votes.

The NDC, NPP and DPP had their polling agents at post to monitor the elections.

At the Presbyterian Senior High School (SHS) Polling Station at Kukuo, also in the same constituency, voting started at 0700 hours.

Mr. Shaibu Sulemana, the Presiding Officer, said the centre had a voter population of 1,068 and that the NDC, NPP, PNC, CPP and DFP had their agents at the station.

At the A.M. E. Zion Junior High School (JHS) polling station voting started at 0808 hours because there were little skirmishes among the voters and they had to be arranged properly in the queue to ensure smooth voting.

Mr. Mahama Janda Tanko, the Presiding officer, said the centre had 1,691 people on the register.

Voting started at 0700 hours with the polling agents of the NPP, NDC, DFP, CPP, and the PNC at post.

At the OLA Junior High School polling station, out of a registered voter population of 1,626 voters, 76 had cast their votes as at 0815 hours, while the station also had six transferred votes and three proxy votes.

At the Lamashegu primary "B" polling station Mr. Addai Ember the Presiding officer said there were 1,231 registered voters and voting started at 0700 hours, while at nearby Lamashegu Primary "A" polling station voting started 0735 hours. There were 1,293 voters on the register.

At the Dapokpa Junior High School, a 75-year-old blind man had difficulty in casting his vote even though he had been provided with voting material.

This held up voting for some minutes while the polling agents consulted with the Presiding Officer as to how to help him to vote.

Eventually it was agreed that the blind man's son could vote in his father's stead as requested by the father.

When the GNA visited the Tamale Central constituency, there was an impressive voter turn-out at most of the polling stations.

At the United Primary "A" and "B" Polling Stations, voters had lined up as early as 0500 hours.

The incumbent MP for the constituency, Alhaji Inusah Fuseini who cast his vote at Tishigu, expressed satisfaction about the conduct of the polls so far and said he was hopeful that the election would be peaceful.

An election observer from the Pan African Parliament in South Africa also expressed satisfaction with the turn-out, as well as the conduct and the process of the election.

1 comment:

I am so proud of Ghana and of Ghanaians for their noteworthy conduct so far during this election. It baffles me when people destroy national property or fight other citizens to express their frustrations. At the end of the day when the fighting is over these same citizens have to find a way to rebuild their country and their lives. Thus it makes no sense to destroy the nation in the first place.We should endeavour to live in peace and to fight our battles legally and constitutionally. Long live Ghana & Long live Africa and Africans.